Reunions
by DFM
Summary: Five ways Season 3 could start.


**Title:** Reunions

**Characters:** Rick Castle & Kate Beckett

**Rating:** PG

**Summary:** Five ways Season 3 could start.

**Disclaimer:** If it looks or sounds like something from Castle, I don't own it.

**Spoilers:** A Deadly Game

**A/N: **I had intended for 'Matters of the Heart' to be my only post-_A Deadly Game_ offering, but these asked to be written...

* * *

**1. In Dreams**

"Beckett..."

Groaning, she turned away from the sound of his voice. The entire summer she'd managed to convince herself that she didn't miss him... except when she was asleep. Apparently her subconscious had decided that there was no going back to the denial she'd been safely ensconced in since meeting Castle.

"Beckett..."

Couldn't she have just one night where he didn't invade her dreams? Was that too much to ask for?

A hand brushing against her cheek startled her, causing her to jerk awake into a sitting position. Her heart rate quickened and her eyes widened as she stared into the amused eyes of Richard Castle.

"Please tell me you didn't actually move in here while I was gone," he teased, as he took in the rumpled sight of her sitting on the break room couch.

"You're back," was all her tired brain could supply for her to say.

"I'm back."

* * *

**2. Still Got It**

Castle stepped off the elevator of the 12th precinct. He didn't know if he was pleased or disappointed that everything looked exactly the same. However, his main concern as he looked around was that he saw no sign of Beckett... or Ryan and Esposito.

"Hey, Castle," Karpowski greeted him almost absentmindedly, though he could have sworn there was a bit of a chill in her voice.

"Hey," Castle answered cautiously. "Do you know where - "

"Beckett and Esposito are in interrogation. I think Ryan's in the observation room."

Nodding his thanks, he beat a hasty retreat. When he entered the observation room he was surprised when all he got was a, "Hey, man," before Ryan turned back to the two-way mirror.

Okay, had pod-cops taken over the 12th?

_"I'm telling you, I didn't have anything to do with Michelle's death. I loved her!"_

Well, at least he'd get to see Beckett take whoever this guy was apart.

_Esposito scoffed. "You really expect us to believe that?"_

_"I believe you," Beckett offered._

_The man looked startled, but leaned forward towards his newfound ally. "Thank you! I wou - "_

_"I didn't say that I didn't think you killed her; I believe that you think you loved her. Michelle showed up in your life, made it perfectly clear at every turn that all you ever had to do was ask and she was yours."_

_"It wasn't like that!"_

_"No? What was it like then? By all reports you two were always flirting with each other, always coming up with excuses to work together. There was just the little problem of your marriage... Did Michelle get tired of waiting for you to leave your wife? So she moved on, found someone with fewer attachments?"_

Even through the tint of the glass, Castle could see the flush of anger that took over the suspect's face.

_"I'd left Barbara," he said through gritted teeth._

_Beckett leaned forward, her voice dropping to a dangerous hush. "Yeah, you had. But it was too late wasn't it? How'd you feel when Michelle told you she found someone else? You'd given up everything for her and that was how she repaid you?"_

_"She didn't even care about him!"_

_"She cared about him enough to get engaged to him. She was over you and you had nothing."_

_"No! I just had to show her... I just had to make her see..."_

_"So, you went over to her apartment..."_

_"I didn't go over there to hurt her," his voice pleaded with her for understanding. "Things just got out of hand and I... I shoved her... she fell and hit her head. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it - it just wouldn't stop."_

_"So you ran?"_

_"Yeah..."_

"She's still got it," Castle commented.

Ryan stared at him incredulously for a second before turning and leaving the room.

"Seriously, what is going on here?" Castle asked the empty room.

* * *

**3. Help**

"Mother, please take a deep breath and tell me what it going on," Castle said as calmly as possible, but he'd never heard his mother this panicked and it was freaking him out. "Are you hurt?"

"No, no," Martha found the presence of mind to reassure him. "It's Anna Winterson..."

Castle's mind conjured up the face of the lead actress who belonged to the name. "She's hurt? Took a roll on a sitcom? What?"

He heard his mother draw a shaky breath, before answering. "She was killed."

Slumping down in his chair, Castle tried to process his mother's words. "Are the police on their way?"

"Yes... Richard..."

"I'm on my way down there. Do you need me to stay on the phone with you?"

There was another long pause, and Castle briefly wondered if she would try and convince him not to come. "No. I'll be okay."

"I'm on my way," he repeated before hanging up.

Castle had the doorman hailing a cab by the time he finally convinced himself to dial another number in his phone.

_"Beckett."_

"I need your help."

* * *

**4. Unexpected Package**

When Beckett arrived at the precinct she stopped just short of her desk, staring in surprise at the package sitting in the middle of her neat desk. There wasn't anything particularly threatening about its appearance, but for some reason its presence worried her.

"It was here when I got in," Esposito offered, coming up behind her.

"Am I gonna have to call the bomb squad?" she asked, only half joking.

"I don't think it's that kind of explosive."

Beckett waited for him to expand on his cryptic comment, but he just smirked and walked away. Steeling herself, she approached her desk...

And saw her name and the address of the precinct written out in Castle's messy penmanship. Before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled out a pair of scissors and cut open the box.

She wasn't terribly surprised when she found a copy of _Naked Heat_, though somehow her throat still tightened up. Laying on top of it was a small piece of white paper.

_Who said I can't learn?_

_RC_

"Beckett," Ryan called to her. "A dead body just turned up on the subway."

She hesitated only a moment before pulling out her phone.

_"Castle."_

"We've got a case. Are you coming?"

_"What's the address?"_

* * *

**5. The Phone Call**

"I don't understand," Alexis said incredulously as she lifted one of her suitcases onto the bed. Unzipping it, she began to sort through the clothes that she hadn't had time to wash in her last load before leaving Princeton. "Why would you go with _Gina_ to the Hamptons?"

"That's a very good question," Castle muttered, dropping her other bags on the floor. "She just wanted to make sure I finished the book."

"Which is what the phone and email were invented for." She tried to read her dad's expression, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. "Dad, please tell me that you didn't get back together with her!"

She did not like the look of the wince that crossed his face before he could suppress it. "Not exactly..."

"What does that mean? Wait... I don't want to know..."

"It's not - " He paused when his cell began to ring. Glancing at the displayed name, he answered without hesitation. "Lanie! You finally couldn't stand missing me anymore?"

_"Castle..."_

He heard the choked back tears in her voice and immediately went on alert. "What? What's wrong?"

_"It's Beckett... she's been hurt."_


End file.
